Your World of Legal Intelligence
 Hong Kong | 1-800-335-6202

Hksar v Ho Chi Shing

Judgment Cited authorities 4 Cited in Precedent Map Related
Vincent
Judgment Date26 February 2009
Year2009
Judgement NumberCACC216/2008
Subject MatterCriminal Appeal
CourtCourt of Appeal (Hong Kong)
CACC000216/2008 HKSAR v. HO CHI SHING

CACC 216/2008

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 216 OF 2008

(ON APPEAL FROM DCCC 69 of 2008)

----------------------

BETWEEN
HKSAR Respondent
and
HO CHI SHING (何志成) Applicant

----------------------

Before: Hon Stuart-Moore VP, Yeung JA and Hartmann JA in Court

Date of Hearing: 20 February 2009

Date of Judgment: 20 February 2009

Date of Reasons for Judgment: 26 February 2009

---------------------------------------

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

---------------------------------------

Hon Yeung JA (giving the reasons for judgment of the Court):

The Facts

1. On 5 December 2007 at about 10 a.m., the applicant (Ho Chi-shing) stopped his private car on the slow lane outside No 44 Gillies Avenue South, Hung Hom with its headlights on. The applicant then fell asleep.

2. Two patrolling police officers found the applicant’s behaviour suspicious and woke him up. The applicant appeared nervous and the police officers searched him. A small black bag, found in the applicant’s left jacket pocket, contained a total of 19 small transparent plastic bags of powder containing cocaine.

3. A further search of the applicant’s private car resulted in the seizure of other plastic bags of powder containing cocaine or ketamine. There were a total of 20 packets of cocaine powder and 2 packets of ketamine powder.

4. The total weight of the 20 packets of cocaine was 7.79 grammes of a powder containing 5.47 grammes of cocaine. The total weight of the 2 packets of ketamine was 28.28 grammes of a powder containing 24.03 grammes of ketamine.

5. The applicant had on his person, HK$32,024, RMB$100 and two mobile phones.

6. The street value of the cocaine was HK$4,650 to HK$6,325 and that of the ketamine powder was HK$3,971.

7. On 3 June 2008, the applicant appeared before Deputy Judge Woo in the District Court and pleaded guilty to the charge of trafficking in the cocaine and ketamine seized by the police officers on 5 December 2007.

8. The judge, referring to R v Lau Tak Ming [1990] 2 HKLR 370 and HKSAR v Lee Tak Kwan [1998] 2 HKLRD 46, took the view that the starting point for the cocaine trafficking “should not be less than three years” and that the starting point for the ketamine trafficking “should not be more than two years”.

9. The judge clearly was of the view that those starting points were appropriate for the quantities of cocaine and ketamine in question. The judge then reduced the combined starting points of 5 years by 6 months to 4 ½ years’ imprisonment. The judge further reduced the sentence to 3 years on account of the applicant’s guilty plea

10. The applicant sought leave to appeal against sentence. At the end of the hearing, we dismissed the application and these are the reasons.

Grounds of Appeal

11. Mr McGowan, counsel for the applicant, submitted that the total starting point of 4 ½ years was manifestly excessive and that adopting a “combined” approach, a more appropriate starting point should be 4 years.

12. Mr McGowan emphasized that the applicant did not have any previous conviction for drug related...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT